by Christina Lee on September 9th, 2009
With today’s economic instability, retail industries have managed to stay afloat by recovering best-selling products of their past and catering them to present customers. Such a strategy is all part of a retail mantra becoming more prevalent in modern marketplaces: stick with what works, the tried and true. Take note from a few industries who are adapting this for themselves:
Video Games
Though experts deemed the video game industry recession-proof in 2008, it finally began to show some weakness in 2009, as profits fell 14 percent in July from the same month last year. In efforts to counter this fall,... Read more »
by Christina Lee on April 14th, 2009
Wholesale prices had declined for the first time this year, surprising economists who largely did not expect them to change at all.
For some, this decrease could be interpreted as a preventive measure against inflation, as Bloomberg reported this morning. Wholesale prices last declined in December 2008, by 1.8 percent.
Measured by the producer price index, wholesale prices serve as one of three gauges of inflation calculated monthly by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Rapidly declining energy prices led the overall decrease, as the costs of both gasoline and home heating oil each declined by 13 percent.
On the other... Read more »
by Christina Lee on March 18th, 2009
Wholesale prices rose by 0.1 percent over the course of February – now the second noted increase in a row since a 1.9 percent decline in December.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the rise yesterday through its regular tracking of wholesale prices of crude, intermediate and finished goods, cumulatively referred to as the producer price index.
Finance and economics journalist James Picerno called the price increase paired with the 22 percent rise in new housing starts “more than just a dead cat bounce.”
“Is it safe to declare the deflation risk over? No, not yet, but it’s not too... Read more »
by Christina Lee on December 9th, 2008
In September 2007, Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division banned most outdoor water use in the state, as it was suffering through one of the worst droughts in its history. There and then, Debbie Smith and her family had to learn quickly the basics of water conservation.
But once her family knew what to do – take shorter showers, turn off the faucet while brushing their teeth – Smith still found herself struggling to break old habits of her husband and teenage kids.
“And then it just occurred to me,” as Smith recalled, “it would have been a lot easier to learn... Read more »